Tamar Haspel

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Tamar Haspel is a freelance writer, best known for her Washington Post columns, where she advocates for genetically modified organisms (GMO) agriculture, and for her conflicts of interest in receiving speaking fees from GMO interests. Food and Water Watch describes Haspel as an opinion writer who has not been shy about trumpeting what she sees as the benefits of GMOs.[1] On one occasion, Congresswoman Chellie Pingree, who is an organic farmer, and Anna Lappé, co-founder of the Small Planet Institute, wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post countering disinformation that Haspel had written about the food movement.[2]

Haspel has criticized public information requests through FOIA to uncover hidden ties between university researchers, such as Kevin Folta, and industry. When US Right to Know sent a FOIA to Kevin Folta, demanding to see his communications with industry groups such as Monsanto, Haspel tweeted, "The money/time/brainpower wasted on @garyruskin’s mean-spirited, self-interested attack on @kevinfolta! Can we move on to something useful?”[3] Months later, the New York Times ran a front page story on Folta's ties to Monsanto, based on emails uncovered by US Right to Know.[4] In April 2018, the University of California at San Francisco acquired these emails as part of their archive on industry documents.[5] Tamar Haspel's name appears in 51 of the industry documents.


Controversies

Haspel hss been noted for ties to front groups and corporate PR. For example, the website Sense About Science USA features this quote from Haspel, "“I live in fear of being taken in by poor-quality research, and STATS is invaluable to me”[6] In a 2016 expose of Sense About Science USA, The Intercept reported that Sense About Science does not always disclose when the scientists it cites on controversial matters have ties to industries, and that the group takes positions that buck scientific consensus or dismiss emerging evidence of harm. "When journalists rightly ask who sponsors research into the risks of, say, asbestos, or synthetic chemicals, they’d be well advised to question the evidence Sense About Science presents in these debates as well."[7]

GMO Advocacy

While Tamar writes about food for the Washington Post, she has written repeatedly about GMOs, every time in a manner which seems to defend corporations, while seldom disclosing that the sources she quotes work for industry. For example, in one column, she wrote about Monsanto's pesticide glyphosate, quoting Keith Solomon, an environmental toxicologist and professor emeritus at the University of Guelph in Ontario.[8] Tamar did not disclose that Keith Solomon is a consultant to Monsanto.[9]

In a second example, Tamar's column that downplayed the food movement was oddly timed to coincide with Monsanto's attempt to stop labeling of GMO foods.[10]In a report titled "A Short Report on Journalists Mentioned in our FOIA Requests" US Right to Know mentioned that Haspel has been critical of attempts to uncover hidden industry ties of academics.[11]

Along with Keith Kloor, Kevin Folta, and Jon Entine, Tamar served as a panelist at the 2014 conference on GMOs hosted by Academics Review and the Genetic Literacy Project. The conference was funded by industry, and the organizers described the journalists attending as "partners" and offered them honoraria of $2500.[12] After the 2014 conference, Cami Ryan sent an email to the other organizers that summarized the conference evaluations. She wrote that attendees wanted "More Haspel-ish/Ropeik-ish sessions (this social scientist concurs)".[13] Ropeik-ish refers David Ropeik.

When Ketchum PR sponsored a panel on science and the public at the National Press Club, Tamar Haspel was one of the three journalists chosen to appear on a panel, along with Keith Kloor. When Atlantic contributor David Freedman, found out that the panel had been sponsored by Ketchum PR, he canceled his appearance.[14]

Buckraking on the Beat

Tamar's payments for speaking at GMO seminars had created allegations that she is buckraking on the beat.[15] She has also spoken at the Cornell Alliance for Science which has been noted as a PR front for GMOs, junk food, and pesticides.[16] When questioned about her speaking fees from industry, Haspel replied in a sarcastic manner that she receives "plenty" of money from corporate front groups.[17]

Discussing Haspel's speaking, Food and Water Watch noted that Haspel does not disclose who actually pays her, nor how much she receives for speaking gigs that often cheerlead for GMO agriculture. "For all the ethical rationalizations some science writers make to justify their participation in industry-backed GMO events, there is a big blind spot. You don’t hear them discussing the appropriate level of financial engagement with GMO critics. That’s because GMO critics don’t have anywhere near the resources as the biotechnology industry, which spends untold sums of money wooing journalists, lobbying Congress, and funding academic research."[18]

References

  1. ↑ Tim Schwab, Food and Water Watch, January 1, 2015, accessed January 2018, Crashing the Pro-GMO Party https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/insight/crashing-pro-gmo-party
  2. ↑ Chellie Pingree and Anna Lappé, Washington Post, February, 4, 2016, accessed January 2018, The food movement is small? Not from where we sit, it isn’t. https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/the-food-movement-is-small-not-from-where-we-sit-it-isnt/2016/02/04/cd20150c-cb75-11e5-a7b2-5a2f824b02c9_story.html?utm_term=.389a2eb016cb
  3. ↑ Tim Schwab, Food and Water Watch, January 1, 2015, accessed January 2018, Crashing the Pro-GMO Party https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/insight/crashing-pro-gmo-party
  4. ↑ Eric Lipton, New York Times, Food Industry Enlisted Academics in G.M.O. Lobbying War, Emails Show, September 5, 2015, accessed May 2018 https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/06/us/food-industry-enlisted-academics-in-gmo-lobbying-war-emails-show.html
  5. ↑ University of California-San Francisco, UCSF Chemical Industry Documents Adds Monsanto Papers and Agrichemical Industry Documents, April 18, 2018, accessed May 2018, https://www.industrydocumentslibrary.ucsf.edu/wpost/ucsf-chemical-industry-documents-expands/
  6. ↑ Sense About Science USA, STATScheck accessed March 2018, http://senseaboutscienceusa.org/statscheck-help-journalists/
  7. ↑ Liza Gross, SEEDING DOUBT How Self-Appointed Guardians of “Sound Science” Tip the Scales Toward Industry, The Intercept, November 15, 2016 https://theintercept.com/2016/11/15/how-self-appointed-guardians-of-sound-science-tip-the-scales-toward-industry/
  8. ↑ Tamar Haspel, Washington Post , October 4, 2015, accessed Aug 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/its-the-chemical-monsanto-depends-on-how-dangerous-is-it/2015/10/04/2b8f58ee-67a0-11e5-9ef3-fde182507eac_story.html?utm_term=.8587e7f3ed93
  9. ↑ Alyssa Navarro , Tech Times , December 8, 2015, accessed Aug 2016, http://www.techtimes.com/articles/114226/20151208/scientists-hired-by-monsanto-say-weed-killer-glyphosate-does-not-cause-cancer.htm
  10. ↑ Stacy Malkan, FAIR, accessed August 2017, Washington Post’s Food Columnist Goes to Bat for Monsanto—Againhttp://fair.org/home/washington-posts-food-columnist-goes-to-bat-for-monsanto-again/
  11. ↑ US Right to Know, "A Short Report on Journalists Mentioned in our FOIA Requests" accessed August 2017, https://usrtk.org/gmo/a-short-report-on-journalists-mentioned-in-our-foias/
  12. ↑ Paul D. Thacker, The Progressive, accessed August 2017, http://progressive.org/magazine/how-the-biotech-industry-cultivates-positive-media/
  13. ↑ Chemical Industry Documents at UCSF (page 18), https://www.industrydocumentslibrary.ucsf.edu/chemical/docs/#id=xnbm0226
  14. ↑ Paul D. Thacker, HuffPost, accessed January 2018, Monsanto’s Media Machine Comes To Washington https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/monsanto-scientific-american_us_56fc41d7e4b083f5c606a649
  15. ↑ Stacy Malkan, FAIR, accessed August 2017, Buckraking on the Food Beat: When Is It a Conflict of Interest?http://fair.org/home/buckraking-on-the-food-beat-when-is-it-a-conflict-of-interest/
  16. ↑ Sophia Johnson, Salon, accessed September 2017, 6 ways this Ivy League university is acting like a PR firm for junk food, GMOs and pesticideshttp://www.salon.com/2017/08/27/6-ways-this-ivy-league-university-is-acting-like-a-pr-firm-for-junk-food-gmos-and-pesticides_partner/
  17. ↑ Gary Ruskin, Alternet, accessed September 2017, 3 Journalists Who Are Disturbingly Cozy with the Agrichemical Industry http://www.alternet.org/food/journalists-who-have-close-ties-food-and-agriculture-industry
  18. ↑ Tim Schwab, Food and Water Watch, What a Masked Academic Crusader Says About GMO Journalism, November 15, 2015, accessed January 2018, https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/insight/what-masked-academic-crusader-says-about-gmo-journalism
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